20120803 Qld Ilfracombe

20120803 Driving into the town of Ilfracombe we noticed many different vintage machineries on display in a park, pull over Des. 

Ilfracombe, it’s hard to imagine that in the 1890s, the town had three hotels each with its own dance hall, a soft drink maker, a coach builder, two general stores, a billiard saloon, a dress maker, three commission agents, a couple of butchers, a baker and a saddler.  Today there are only 350 people living in the shire, and the old stations where anything up to 100 people were employed are now a thing of the past.  In 1892 Wellshot Station (60km south of town) was the largest sheep station in the world, in terms of the number of sheep it ran: 460,000.

This is just some of the old machinery on display, back from here are many old graders which Greg Colins would love to brows through.

 George's Truck

A Morris Commercial 4 ton truck brought new in Longreach in 1940 and used to cart charcoal.  In the mid 50s it was purchased by Savage Bros. Butcher to cart meat from the slaughter yard to the town.  It was deregistered in the mid 1960's and used to cart wood to cook the offal for pigs that were killed for the shop, until about 1978.

The Barcaldine Bedford

 This 1 ton 1930 Bedford was purchased new by Chas Durston who was a carpenter.  In 1956 Layton Bryan brought it for £15, and used it to spray fruit trees in his Weona Orchard.  Property sold to Tom Lockie in the mid 90's.  At the clearing sale Leslie Barwick brought the truck for $10 & later donated it to the museum.  It originally had a timber cab.

This 1917 Ruston Kerosene Tractor is one of only three remaining in the world.  There were 443of them manufactured under licence from Holt, U.S.A.  Most of these went to Russia during the first W.W.  This tractor was used in the building of the Longreach to Winton railway line in 1925, then later to pull a Comet Fire-Plough.

A records claimed by the shire is that of the largest mob of sheep ever moved as a single flock.  In 1886 43,000 sheep were moved through the area by a droving team of 27 horsemen – not including the cook, blacksmith & hands which would have been needed to accompany the drovers.  The era of the large wagon hauls was ended by the arrival of the railway in 1891.

Boundary Rider's Hut

 This residence of a boundary rider at an outstation on Portland's Downs.  Typical of the accommodation which was provided for men, (sometimes with there family) who lived isolated lives caretaking remote sections of large stations.  Portland's Downs was established from about 1868 with an original area of 353,280 acres.  The huts were built at minimum cost to provide basic shelter without running water, supplies were delivered from the head station.

Meat Safe

 A container filled with kerosene and water was placed under the table legs as an Ant deterent, the Ants would drown in the liquid.

The old versatile would stove, cheap to run and kept the house warm in winter.

What a great little town with lots of history, it so hard to imagine what it was like to live in those days.

We drove on heading to Barcaldine, it was getting late will we go to Jodies and Michael tonight or park up, we didn't won't to rush and we haven't seen Barcaldine, so we camped in a rest area for the night.